One Navy Seal has been rightly or justly found not guilty. The truth has prevailed and now I hope that the truth prevails with the other two trials. This could have been all avoided if their commander, or General in charge had just handled this properly, but he didn't. He could have just talked to the Navy Seals if he felt that their treatment of the terrorist was harsh. PLus, that is one method in the terrorists playbook- to make false accusations. Wars, during American history, have not been won by being nice to our enemy. These Navy Seals are heroes for capturing one member of our enemy, who so brutally murdered our contractors in Iraq. Petty Officer 1st Class Julio Huertas, 28, was found not guilty by a six-man military jury of dereliction of duty by failing to stop a colleague from punching the prisoner, Ahmed Hashim Abed. He was also acquitted on charges of trying to cover up the assault by influencing the testimony of another service member.
In one of the most notorious murders of the war in Iraq, the contractors' burned bodies were dragged through the streets and two were hanged from a bridge over the Euphrates river in the former insurgent hotbed of Fallujah.
The verdict will be welcomed by veterans groups and other supporters in the United States, where the case has brought calls from congressmen for the department of defence to step in and stop the trial.
But attention will now turn to two remaining cases arising from the incident, against the man accused of committing the alleged assault, Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew McCabe, and against Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Keefe, who is also accused of failing to intervene.
The Iraqi was arrested in a operation conducted by Seals, the naval branch of the US special forces, last September. He is accused of masterminding the kidnapping, killing and burning of four private contractors working for the Blackwater security firm in Fallujah in 2004. One of the men was a former Seal.
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9 comments:
This is great news. I hope justice reigns for our brave men.
I think hell just froze over. I'll bet Obama's nipping a bottle in sorrow tonight.
Glad at least one of our soldiers wasn't guilty of such a heinous thing.
You see, I don't believe in blind retribution. Regardless of what they did to us, it doesn't justify beating up a defenseless detainee.
Oh, and FTR...POWs in American hands (our "enemies") have always been treated well. Go research war camp conditions during the world wars. Probably the one exception to that was during the Civil War, but that was also a very strange situation all around. ^.^
Also- to your comment...
" This could have been all avoided if their commander, or General in charge had just handled this properly, but he didn't. He could have just talked to the Navy Seals if he felt that their treatment of the terrorist was harsh."
That isn't how the military works. There are rules about the treatment of prisoners. If there are aspersions those rules have been broken, a court martial has to be held, IIRC. We can't (and definitely shouldn't) condone such things being let go with a sincere "Now CO really wishes you hadn't done that" because the situation will only get worse.
Liberty,
Actually I have heard from various high ranking officials in the military all the General was required to do was talk to the soldiers and give them a verbal reprimand, regardless of whether I think it was needed or not.
Actually, Geraldo on The O'Reilly Factor stated-the suspected terrorist received better treatment than he would have by our very own police.
The second sailor was cleared of the charges also.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gz7Vp4WQ6rlbznaqmlZHlbtxrs0gD9F8UATG0
Here is some information on how U.S. soldiers treated POW's during WWII-- either the same or much worse:
http://www.historycooperative.org/cgi-bin/justtop.cgi?act=justtop&url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/94.4/weingartner.html
Opie,
I hope justice reigns also. Good news- the second Seal was cleared also. Hoping three for three.
Snarky,
One can only hope so.
"Actually I have heard from various high ranking officials in the military..."
Linky or other citation? :)
"Actually, Geraldo on The O'Reilly Factor stated-the suspected terrorist received better treatment than he would have by our very own police."
Not exactly the most unbiased source since Geraldo has a vested interest in telling his audience (Republicans) what they want to hear- which is often, sadly, all "America is right, the brown skinned people are wrong, kumbiyah and good night." ;) In other words, I don't trust Fox News. Did Geraldo cite any sources for this information beyond himself? :)
Interesting site, and thanks for the link. :) Much of the war crimes on our side during that time were related to the battlefield (and Hiroshima and Nagasaki didn't help...) and as a general rule, Americans tried to treat them better in actual camps, the incentive being that if we treated their men well, they would treat ours well. Worked...a bit, but not quite as well as we'd hoped.
One Allied power that did seem to renege on its Geneva Convention promise was Britain, it appears:
http://www.ety.com/HRP/rev/warcrimetrials.htm
An analysis of the treatment of German soldiers in US POW camps:
http://www.traces.org/germanpows.html
However, here's an article about a man who wrote a book claiming that Eisenhower had "redefined" POWs (Gee, who else does that sound like?) as something else so they wouldn't have to feed the men so much:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,958673,00.html
Rather interesting. And utterly sickening.
Liberty,
Actually Geraldo is quite an independent mind on Fox.
Here is are links: From a former Judge advocate--http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/58592
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.5209/pub_detail.asp
This is an interesting post:
http://commentarama.blogspot.com/2010/01/navy-seals-on-trial-part-3.html
I will check out the links and respond after I return from a trip on Monday.
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